The 11 Greatest Football Players Of All Time
The task of
picking the all-time 11 best players in the world is a near-impossible job as
every single one of us have a different perspective on whom to put on the list.
It was a tough selection process, and this is A.com’s take on the best 11 players on the planet, ever.
Every player on this list was chosen not just based on his skills and achievements, but also the ability to lift those around him and deliver in the most pressurised situation and on the biggest stage.
11. Lev Yashin (Soviet Union)
Just like in a football team, every top 11 list needs a goalkeeper. And there was no better keeper in the world than Yashin, nicknamed the “Black Spider”.
The Soviet Union shot-stopper earned the nickname due to his intimidating, all-black kit. He had some of the best reflexes ever seen between the goalposts and the ability to pull off jaw-dropping saves.
His unwillingness to play outside the USSR did not deprive the world of the chance to see him in action as his heroics allowed the Soviets to win the first-ever European Championship in 1960.
There was no doubt that he was the best goalkeeper who ever lived, and FIFA honoured Yashin by naming their annual award for the Best Goalkeeper of the Year as the Lev Yashin Award.
10. Eusebio (Portugal)
The Portugal legend, who was born in Mozambique, is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
“The King”, as Eusebio is known, scored an astonishing 733 goals in 745 matches, which is regarded a great feat five decades ago.
He was famous for his speed, technique, and athleticism, and most importantly, the ability to strike fear into opponents by his mere presence on the pitch.
He took the world by storm after moving to Benfica in 1961, where he led them to conquer many domestic and continental titles, including the Primeira Liga and the European Cup.
The 1965 Ballon d’Or winner holds the record of being the second highest scorer in the history of the old European Cup, prior to the introduction of the Champions League’s group stage system.
When UEFA introduced the Golden Boot award for the European Cup’s top scorer in 1968, Eusebio became its first recipient, and he repeated the feat in 1973.
Gerd Muller made his name
through lethal finishing and his ability to get into the best positions to
score.
His goalscoring record in the
German Bundesliga lasted for exactly 50 years before being broken by Robert
Lewandowski this year, just before Muller’s death in August. He was Germany’s
all-time highest scorer for close to 40 years.
Muller started his career in
1958 at Nordlingen before moving to Bayern Munich and Fort Lauderdale.
The German striker, fondly known as "Bomber der Nation" (The Nation's Bomber) is one of the very few footballers in the world to have scored more goals than in games played having netted 1,251 times from 998 matches.
He helped then West Germany to lift the 1974 World Cup by scoring the winning goal against Holland. He has also won the Ballon d'Or and the World Cup Golden Boot.
8. Franz Beckenbauer
(Germany)
Beckenbauer, known as the “Kaiser”
was a no-nonsense centreback who went on to become a successful manager.
Having won the World Cup as a
player with Germany in 1974, the two-time Ballon d’Or winner then went on to
repeat the feat as the manager of his national side 16 years later.
Beckenbauer dominated German
football in the 1960s and ’70s and is arguably the country’s greatest
footballer.
An intelligent player, he
invented the modern position of the attacking sweeper who initiates the attack
from central defence with raking passes and long runs.
He earned his nickname due to
his superb leadership qualities and dominance, which made him one of the most
influential team captains ever.
7. Zinedine Zidane (France)
The 1998
Ballon d'Or winner had a hugely successful career at both Juventus and Real
Madrid.
But his
ticket to fame was his world-class performance during the 1998 World Cup when
he steered France to the title on home soil.
Scoring a
brace of headed goals in the final against a star-studded Brazil turned Zidane
into an overnight global icon and bagged him the Ballon d'Or award that year.
He followed
it up with a stunning performance to guide France to the Euro 2000 title, and
was crowned the player of the tournament.
He won the
Champions League title with Real Madrid in 2002, whom he then managed to bag
three more Champions League crowns in successive years.
6. Alfredo Di Stefano
(Argentina)
Real Madrid's greatest ever player and the main reason of
their dominance of European football in the 1950s.
Di Stefano had a 20-year career, in which he scored 307
goals in 396 appearances and won 15 major honours with the Los Blancos,
including five straight European Cups.
Playing as a supporting striker or as an attacking
midfielder, Di Stefano holds the record for being the only player to score in five
European Cup finals.
The Real Madrid legend's best performance probably came in
the 7-3 1960 European Cup final win against Eintracht Frankfurt, where he controlled
everything on the pitch.
The only blot in Di Stefano’s legacy is that he never got a chance to play in the World Cup.
Many people still consider Di Stefano as the greatest Argentine player ever, even better than Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi.
5. Johan Cruyff
(Netherlands)
No other player made a more
significant contribution to the revolution of modern football than Johan
Cruyff.
He showed the world what is “total
football” by bringing it to Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona and the Netherlands
national team.
Cruyff had a distinguished career
for both his club and national teams playing some beautiful football along the
way.
The creator of the unique move which
was christened the “Cruyff turn” is a three-time Ballon d'Or wininer in 1971,73
and 74.
Cruyff first created his legacy in
Ajax, where he guided the Dutch giants to multiple league titles and three
stunning European Championships, playing an integral role and leading from the
front.
However, his best contribution was the
transformation of Barcelona.
Guiding the Catalans to their first
league title in 14 years immediately after joining them, Cruyff is considered a
cult hero, and was the first to introduce the tiki-taka and beautiful football
at the Nou Camp.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo
(Portugal)
After first coming to prominence at
Manchester United, the Portuguese superstar then built his reputation as one of
the world’s best footballers with Real Madrid.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner
helped Real clinch three successive Champions League titles and holds the world
record for most international goals scored and is the highest scorer in the
Champions League.
After playing at the top level for 18
years now, Ronaldo shows no signs of slowing down or stopping scoring. He is
back at United this season, and has immediately become their top scorer of the
2021/22 season at the age of 36.
3. Lionel
Messi (Argentina)
2. Diego Maradona (Argentina)
If there is one moment to capture
the real essence of the late Diego Maradona, it was during the 1986 World Cup
quarter-final against England.
The Argentine maestro went on a jaw-dropping mazy
run to leave the entire English defence in his wake before scoring what many consider to be the greatest
World Cup goal of all time.
The highlight of the “flawed genius”
Maradona’s career was lifting the 1986 World Cup trophy in Mexico.
Supremely talented and a magician
with his feet, Diego Maradona could do things with a football that no one else
could even dream of.
Besides his famous Argentina exploits,
Maradona also had a fantastic club career with Barcelona and Napoli.
He remains the only Barca player to
receive a standing ovation from fierce rivals Real Madrid’s supporters during a
Clasico match.
At Napoli, Maradona single-handedly
dragged the team to two Serie A titles. Napoli have renamed their stadium as
the Diego Armando Maradona Arena following his death last year.
1. Pele
(Brazil)
Brazilian legend Pele is widely
regarded the greatest football player of all time. No player has won more World
Cups than him, and that alone justifies the Brazilian's place at the top of
this list.
The best at scoring goals, Pele was
also the focal point of attack for club and country. He is the only player to
score more than 1200 senior goals, a record that remains to this day.
Pele brought his best game when it
mattered the most. The youngest ever player (17 years) to score in a World Cup,
Pele scored twice during the 1958 World Cup final against Sweden.
Although he only featured in one
game at the 1962 World Cup because of injury, it was in 1970 that he cemented
his legacy as the greatest player of all time.
Playing some beautiful football,
Brazil dominated the tournament, with Pele winning the Golden Ball award for
his performances.
He also had a successful club career
with Santos and New York Cosmos. Winner of multiple trophies at Santos, Pele
scored over 600 goals for the Brazilian club before winding down his career in
the United States.
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